Archive for the 'Blue Dawg' category
Blue Dawg “Wild Blue” Blueberry Lager
I’ve had a few blueberry beers in my day – most of them are a golden hue with a light fruity scent and just a touch of blueberry sweetness in the flavor. But not the Wild Blue. This stuff is serious blueberry business. The first thing I notice is that this is 8% abv, which is high for any beer – especially a fruity beer in a small bottle. I’m anxious to see what this stuff actually tastes like.
The Wild Blue pours a ridiculously dark purple color with a thin off-white head and noticeable debris in the liquid. The aroma of this is pure blueberry and booze. You can smell lots of tart wild blueberry here, mingled with a burning alcohol aroma, foretelling the flavor to come. In the mouth, this stuff is extremely big and fruity. Initially, there is a sharp sweetness on the tip of the tongue – this is where the wild blueberry first makes its stand. It is very sweet with a sour tart bite and no bitterness to speak of. As the beer travels down the tongue, the tartness of this beer only increases while the sweetness stays pretty constant throughout. This is a great flavor – the only downside is that the sweetness does little to mask alcohol, and you can taste all eight of those 8.0% abv’s. Down the throat, this beer is cool and refreshing, leaving just a light sweet candy flavor at the back of the throat, kinda like a Starburst candy. All in all, this beer is quite a creation. It is super sweet, quite big, and has enough booze in it to throw you for a loop if you aren’t careful. The only qualm with this is that you’re liable to mistake it for some kind of girly drink when you first see and taste it. But, once you look past the purple color and the super fruity flavor, you’ll see that this beer is quite an achievement. I like any fruit beer with balls that is still this well-balanced. Typically, it seems like the Belgians are the only guys that can really pull this off to this level, so I’m glad to see an American brewer also giving it a successful go.
